Ruia, IPW to provide quality services soon

Tirupati: The Ruia Hospital in the pilgrim city, which caters to the needs of entire Rayalaseema and Nellore districts, will soon provide quality healthcare services to patients by upgrading the present services in various fields as identified by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH).

A team of experts deputed by NABH visited Ruia Hospital already to observe the status of various facilities, services and identified several deficiencies. The hospital administration was asked to address those in order to facilitate them to get prestigious NABH accreditation.

Accordingly, the State government has sanctioned Rs 19.48 crores to Ruia Hospital and Rs 3.09 crore to Institute of Pregnant Women (IPW) to undertake various works in order to fulfil the norms of the NABH.

More than five-decade old Ruia Hospital has no proper firefighting system for all these years. As NABH insisted this, Rs 4 crore was earmarked for laying mild steel pipeline externally and internally for wards, casualty, ICUs along with sprinklers which will prevent fire accidents.

Once, these works are completed, they have to obtain a no objection certificate from the Fire Services department. Similarly, till now all sewages is going into underground drainage and this has to be changed by setting up a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), said the Executive Engineer of Andhra Pradesh Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC), T Nagesh.

Speaking to The Hans India, he said that with this it should be treated properly, solid waste should be taken out, and recycled water needs to be used for gardening or can be disposed of. This plant is under construction with Rs 3.5 crore. It will have one million litre per day capacity and total UDS lines in the campus will be diverted to this.

Significantly, the Central Sterilisation Services Department (CSSD) at Ruia Hospital was not fulfilling the guidelines of NABH standards and was running from a small room. There are 12 Operation Theatres (OTs) in Ruia where 40-50 surgeries are being performed daily.

For this, the CSSD was not sufficient to sterilise surgical instruments. A new CSSD is being built at a cost of Rs 1.25 crore near to OTs from where all sterilisation work will be done and go to theatres.

Most importantly, OTs at Ruia also were not meeting the standards and being run with window ACs and split ACs which cannot take fresh air inside. But, sources in the hospital told that, as per norms, they should facilitate filtering of bacteria up to a minimum of 500 microns as per NABH and Medical Council of India norms.

By spending Rs 4 crore, these will be upgraded by setting up air handling units at OTs to filter polluted air and circulate fresh air inside. Accordingly, they have planned to convert 8 OTs as modular theatres. The electric cables have been damaged very badly in the oldest hospital and needs to be revamped with new cables and equipment. Also, toilets for physically challenged, steel railing at both sides of stair cases etc., are to be provided.

All these works are going on with Rs 7.98 crore. As the maternity hospital is located at newly built Institute of Pregnant Women (IPW), the deficiencies are minimum there.

Rs 3.09 crore was sanctioned to provide steel railings on both sides of staircases, anti-skid steps on the staircases, blood bank modification with aluminium partitions, CCTV cameras for demonstration to students from OTs for teaching and other works.

In addition, vehicle parking near Ruia Hospital, IPW and Paediatric building will be provided, and the work are in progress. All these works have to be completed by February and after that NABH team will visit again to review the progress before taking further steps to give accreditation.

The Superintendent of Ruia Hospital Dr B Sidda Naik has said that with this accreditation, the hospital will be eligible for central assistance. Also, by fulfilling the norms, the facilities will be upgraded and patients will have better and safe services.